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It is taking Word and Excel 30 to 60 seconds to open. We are running a P4/2.0 with 256 ram, 38 gb hard drive and XP operating system. I have tried several things, including checking for spyware using Spybot, Ad-Aware and MS Antispyware. I've cleaned the registry with RegScrub XP, RegSupreme and Tune-up Utilities 2004. We run Symantec Antivirus 10.0 daily. Any ideas?
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Symantec...
It's plugin for Office has been known to increase the startup time.
Bob
On or off. Somewhere there is a switch to see if that's it. The other usual is that the owner has never run DISK CLEANUP.
Bob
I'm using MSOffice 2003. When I click Word or Excel, even the first time, it only takes less than 5 seconds. I own a PIV 2.8Ghz 512RAM AGP-5200 128, but I am quite sure is the MSOffice 2003. Try it.
You can disable Norton antivirus for MS Office applications. Open Norton antivirus, select options (you should have a split window with categories on the left and specifics on the right) under "other" is a category Miscellaneous there you will find the option to disable the "office plug in" simply un-check the checkbox, your applications should load much faster.
Yes I think you will find this works. If you look at the bottom left hand side of the screen when loading either Word or Excel you will find the program is waiting for Norton to do a virus check etc.,
Question is: What protection have we just given up?
I think not much, if we're careful about what we download or open from unknown sources. Big danger is nasty macros, but common sense should protect from those, and Norton AV checks incoming stuff, anyway.
Regards, Doug in New Mexico
Hey thanks for that suggestion. I just happened to be browsing, saw the thread, disabled Office plug-in, and my Word opens in less than half the time.
I have entered options then other, but there is no misc. category
It was 2005.
That probably means that poster will not reply to you. It also 'possibly' means that you and he are using different versions of Norton. If that is the case you will need to look elsewhere within your Nortons for this option.
You may want to make a new post in the forum and clearly state your problems.
Mark
I have had several users have this problem.
The first thing I do is check for .tmp files. Everytime you open Word or Excel it looks to see if it needs to restore a crashed file. Sometimes when closing Word or Excel the document tmp file gets left behind. Several of these will be 0 bits and others will be of varing sizes.
Usually you can find these files in your profile directory, but a quick searce for *.tmp and ~*.* you can find and delete these files.
Add more RAM. For XP and all programs installed into the Harddrive you need 512M of Ram. Then, delete all *.tmp files. Then, defrag the HD. This will take care of the problem. Do not unselect Norton Antivirus for the office programs. This gives you great protection from viruses.
the problem is Norton considerably slows down your system. bloated, slow software. use another anti-virus program. I used to be a big Norton fan, but about a year ago I switched to McAfee not only for my computer but for all the computers I work on. I haven't looked back since. My speed is back and I still have great protection. those people who still tout Norton either don't really know the facts or are Norton shills in disguise. Many companies have their PR employees go into these forums to defend their products. go do a google search for: norton slows computer -- you will see it is a common complaint. Norton doesn't care -- they keep selling bloated, slow software. solution: use another anti-virus program. You will be happy you did.
the previous poster was correct that 512MB of RAM is the "sweet spot" for Windows XP to run well with a couple of programs open. Microsoft says XP will run with 128MB of RAM, but their idean of "run" and ours are totally different. 128MB of RAM will make it run like molasses. 256MB is the real minimum for rudimentary useage. 512MB is best. And XP really hums if you have a video card with separate RAM -- not the "shared" system RAM only which regrettably is becoming more common.
However, the original question was the inordinate start up time of Word and Excel. Too little RAM would be evident even in starting up the browser -- so it's not just general slowness, but one set of applications in particular: Microsoft Office. In that case, it's probably Norton causing that particular slowness, according to other people's experience in other user groups. Disconnect from the Internet, temporarily disable your Norton, see if the start up times dramatically improve. If so, change out your anti-virus application with another trusted brand. There are some that strive for superior protection AND wise use of system resources; read reviews and find them.
I have used Norton since Norton Utilities 8.0 and Norton Antivirus 2.0. I have had no slowness caused by Norton Utilities and Antivirus. The people that complain about Norton utilities and Antivirus have other problems than Norton, with the slowness of their PC speed. I am very tired of the complaints about Norton. If Norton is a bad product, then why are they very successful. They have been successful for 14 years. Up to 1996, the DOD was using IBM Antivirus. They stopped and started using and recommending Norton Antivirus. If Norton is favorable with the DOD, it is a favorable product. DOD is the Department of Defense.
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